Too Much TV!!! What can toddler do instead?

[Sam]

Help!!
I need some easy, affordable ideas that I can use to avoid having to rely on the TV to babysit my 2 and a half year old boy.

My emergency shortlist includes:

* pull out the wooden train tracks, blocks, toy figures and get him building a city
* bathtime - with food dye, bubbles and goggles
* chalk - to draw on the paving and decking in our garden (but only if I know its going to rain soon)


Ideally I'm after things he can do on his own, without needing my involvement....

Any ideas would be great.
I love the wiggles and hi 5 but enoughs enough.

[Elfin]

It is hard to keep them busy and ideally children that age should only be watching 1 hour a day. I take the view if they are going to watch tv they should watch something more educational like playschool or sesame street.

Anyway how about just playing in the dirt in the yard, bucket spade, stick and dig in the dirt, you don't need a sandpit.

Painting the concrete with water. Bucket, water and an old paintbrush. This is fun and might wash the chalk off.

Cooking. Helping to make muffins or a cake. Need lots of supervision here but mine enjoy this.

Playdoh, and other craft activities. I like just buying stickers and we stick them on old envelopes, paper or plastic containers that were headed for the bin.

Glueing, sticking bits of stuff to paper. To make it really fun go for a walk and collect things along the way such as leaves, sticks, flowers then come home and stick all the stuff to paper.

How about getting him a little stroller to push bears around. I know he is a boy but my ds just loved to this and the strollers are pretty cheap or alternatively you could buy a little shopping trolley.

That is about all I can think of at the moment. Will be interested in hearing anyone else's ideas.

[Rell]

Easterlily you seam to have all the same ideas as me.
Playdough is always great - there is a great recipe on the packet of Cream of Tartar
Drawing. painting, glueing
Dress ups - mums old clothes work a treat
jigsaw puzzles
Dancing to music - give them a long peice of crepe paper to twirl around with
Musical instruments - made out of household items
Cleaning - Yes this is something my daughter LOVES to do. I give her a damp cloth and she goes around the house "cleaning" things
Washing up - give them some plastic cups and a bucket of water and let them wash them up.
Goop - A bit messy but lots of fun
To make goop mix 2 cups of water to 600g cornflour and add food colouring. Pour it into a large container, give them some cups and spoons and let the kids go for it. (outside)

Hope you can use some of these ideas and remember bordom breeds creativity.

[draught]

There are some great ideas on here which I will be using. Other things that we do includes pretend cooking - I give DD1 uncooked rice (sometimes I colour it with food colouring) and a mixing bowl, spoon, some measuring cups and she stands at the bench "make cake" for ages - and although there is rice everywhere at the end, it is easy to sweep up (much better than flour!) and it is teaching skills like pouring and stirring and concepts like volume etc.

Also - she has a small CD player in her room and a collection of nursery rhyme Cd's and story CD's - she loves to "play music" in her room while playing - and will get up and do the actions of the songs then go back to what she was doing. She seems to like the autonomy of chosing her music in her space and has worked out how to stop and start the music so will play the same song over and over again.


we also have a sandpit - just one of the plastic clamshells with some sand in it and she will sit in it for hours pouring and patting and making shapes. I sometimes take a magazine to read or the phone to make calls while she plays.

[Kassiasmum]

Theres some excellent ideas on here that I will be using myself. If you go to your local library, there are books on TV free ideas for your kids, these are excellent

Tracey

[cwsmum]

My 2yr old son loves to read magazines, any will do, so long as he has seen me reading them at some point :) He will sit for ages just looking at them.
He also likes cutting, I got him some of the kids scissors that only cut paper and when we have both finished reading the magazines he will sit and cut them up.
All my other ideas have already been listed :)

[mumof2girls]

you could do the old fashion drawing/colouring on paper with crayons/chalk etc

magnetic pictues/shapes/letters on the fridge or board if you have one

dress ups for themselves and teddy bears (my girls love to dress teddies up in their old clothes)

dancing you could make streamers etc to dance with

cars on a mat, if you don't have a mat draw one on paper or outside on the pavement.

playing with teddies/prams/baby baths etc are great for his imagination also kitchen play is great even if you get confetti etc to put in pots etc for him to stir and play with (easy to vacuum)

These are all I can think of off the top of my head :)

[AZEEM'S MUM]

My 2 year old has been kept busy for hours lately after I discovered a website that gives u great educational craft ideas it's
www.enchantedlearning.com you could give it a try. It also has printable books so the kids can read and colour in as they go along. Best part of it is your child playing him/herself smart without you pulling your hair out.....Hope it works out for you :)

[Chickadee]

I love the ideas on here! Keep them coming. I put 2 bowls and an ice cream tray down in front of my 1.5 yr old daughter, filled one with 2 different pasta shapes and gave her a scoop. She played by herself for an hour! Brilliant!

[moggs]

Hiya,

These idea's are great! My daughter is getting to that age where she needs more entertainment since she has now dropped the day-time nap!

I love the www.enchantedlearning.com website and have used it often. Another is www.abc.net.au and then looking at the playschool site (make and do). If anybody else knows of any great sites please tell..........(getting desperate and don't have alot of money)

xxmoggsxx :o

[MyL&S]

Hi all,

Thanks for the tips as well as the web site, i headed straight to the enhanted learning web site and its great.. I am starting a arts corner for my son and the activites and crafts will keep him amused for hours..

My saving tip is when there are specialc on like toilet paper i buy in bulk, and i buy my washing powder from k-mart when they have 15% off

[filmgirlgail]

Hiya

Jessica loves being read to, but she is happy to "read" books herself. She has a great cardboard one with lots of pictures, which I got from Woolies for $4, but she reads it for ages in the car or house. Also, I "accidentally" leave the video cabinet open and she gets out all the videos, this keeps her busy for ages, and it only takes me 2 minutes to put them all back. Sometimes she puts them back too and she loves opening and closing the doors. Yesterday out of the blue she started getting into LEGO bigtime and built upto 5 stories with it!! She also loves trying on my shoes and trying to walk in them. Also, puzzles, just the simple ones with the knobs on to pull out single pieces and put them back too.

Hope this helps

[mummy_to_4]

- playdough
- goop
- painting
- cubby house made of old sheets
- cardboard boxes - kids love them
- a trip to the libary for story reading - most libaries have certain times where they have kids story telling
- the local playground
- outside (weather permitting) stripped off allowed to play in dirt, water, sand etc - another fav
- cooking activities - cookies or muffins
- bubbles
- sorting games
- bead threading
- nature walk - collect leaves etc then do a collage of what they have collected
- imaginary games - pretend to go on a bear hunt - my 2 year olds love pretending to walk through squlechy mud!!! and be chased my an imaginary bear.
- musical instruments - even make your own - plastic bottle with some rice in it does the trick!!

Thats about all I can think of at the moment but have you seen the book called 101 tv free activities for your child (or something similar to that) its a great book jammed pack with some great ideas.